About U!REKA

U!REKA is a European University Alliance of over 30 higher education institutions and partners. By working together across borders and building on each other’s expertise and strengths, we educate the European professionals of tomorrow: inclusive, intercultural, open-minded professionals who accelerate Europe's shift towards climate neutrality.

Our history

U!REKA stands for the Urban Research and Education Knowledge Alliance. Our story started in 2016, when six founding universities decided to create a network focused on sharing best practices in education and research and offering students and employees opportunities to collaborate internationally. Our founding partners include the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (the Netherlands); Edinburgh Napier University (Scotland); HOGENT University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Belgium); Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (Germany); Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki (Finland); and OsloMet (Norway).

Our network has transformed since those early days. In 2020 we welcomed two new full partners: Politécnico de Lisboa (Portugal) and VSB – Technical University of Ostrava (Czech Republic). In early 2020 our Scottish partner Napier become an associate partner due to Brexit and a year later we said goodbye to one of our founding partners, OsloMet.

From 2016 – 2023, U!REKA focused on establishing collaborative projects in the areas of teaching, research, mobility initiatives and more. We created many successful initiatives in that time, such as the Urban Commons Lab, Research Support Group and the U!REKA Change Agents programme for students, among others. Our annual networking event, U!REKA Connects, is the highlight of the year for our network.

Find out more about our past initiatives by browsing our joint activities.

U!REKA today: a European University Alliance

In early 2023, U!REKA unveiled a new strategy and mission as part of its aim to participate in the European Commission’s European Universities Initiative. Our proposal, called U!REKA SHIFT (Sustainable Human Inclusive Future-proof Transition), was successful. This means that, as of 2024, U!REKA is an official Erasmus+ co-funded European University Alliance. Our expanded partner network now includes over 30 partners from across Europe (6 full partners and 26 associate partners).

U!REKA SHIFT aims to, through long-term structural cooperation, integrate our partners education and research activities into a European University with a clear focus on three objectives, which include establishing an inter-university campus, sharing best practices and accelerating the transition to climate-neutral and smart cities.

The goals of the European Green Deal and the EU-mission for 100 Climate Neutral and Smart Cities are embedded in our strategy. U!REKA SHIFT is one of the few EUA-projects with only universities of applied sciences as the main partners. We are extremely proud to participate in this programme!

Published by  Communication 23 January 2024